


The Room Where Everything Began

by AngelTheFourthDragneelBrother



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Accidental Kiss, Creepslayerz, Eli being hyped over aliens, Fluff, Just dorks being dorks, M/M, Mentions of the trilogy trailer i guess???, No clue how to tag this trash, Play wrestling leads to something more, Slight Season 3 spoilers, i have no clue how to tag this, the Creepslayerz rule and they need more screentime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 23:05:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelTheFourthDragneelBrother/pseuds/AngelTheFourthDragneelBrother
Summary: A quick cabinet rummage uncovered a bag of chips and some cookies. They took those and went up to Eli’s room, the official Creepslayerz assemble location and birth place of the team. Even though it had been some time since they formed the team the thought would always make Eli smile. His room, the place where he had seen a Goblin up close. The first place where Steve had jumped up to protect him, where Steve had called him a cool dude. Where many meetings had transpired since then, some of said conversations would somehow turn from Creepers to other things, things that friends would talk about. It’s just-the start of everything happened in his room. Eli made sure to lock the door behind them just in case his mother came home early, and uncovered his conspiracy billboard.





	The Room Where Everything Began

**Author's Note:**

> Another short dorky ass story. Rated teen and up cause I can't write without cursing. Fucking fight me.

    Eli’s house was the ideal location for when the Creepslayerz were going over Creepers or plans of attack. One, because all of Eli’s equipment and research was there. Two, because his room was more spacious than Steve’s and they didn’t have to worry about eavesdropping as much. (Or worry about Lawrence coming in asking if they wanted snacks or something [give the man a break, he was trying]) Plus Eli’s mom usually worked evenings. However she still didn’t exactly trust Steve in the house because of what had happened to her car, even if they had been taking an injured animal to the vet (the excuse that they had given). But that didn’t stop Steve from sneaking into the house after she would leave.

    Today’s Creepslayerz meeting was because Eli wanted to talk about a falling star or something, Steve hadn’t exactly caught everything that Eli had shouted over the phone both due to the speed that Eli had been speaking in and just the words in general. Regardless, he had told Eli that he would be over in less than twenty minutes. He could get over to the house in his Vespa in ten minutes; the extra time was so he could give Lawrence some excuse as to why he was leaving and where he was going.

    The most popular excuse so far had been that he was studying with Pepperjack. Which was true, they were studying and learning, but the topics that they discussed weren’t exactly algebra or Spanish class. Steve needed to find a new excuse quickly though, if he kept using the studying excuse then Lawrence was going to start expecting his grade to improve. Lawrence gave him his famous “Drive safe, don’t stay out to late, see you later champ” speech, which Steve no longer scoffed at, nodding in response instead.

    Steve grabbed his backpack-the one with his Creepslaying supplies and not his school supplies-while Eli had said that it was just a meeting, Steve knew that a Creepslayer had to be prepared for anything. The sun was still out when he left the house and he was grateful for that, now that he knew that a lot of Creepers (the bigger scarier ones at least) could not be in the sun. It was already going down but the golden rays were still enough protection. Riding his Vespa was one of his favourite things to do, nothing but the purr of the motor and paved roads to keep him company. But he did like when Eli tagged along for the ride as well. While Pepperjack would hold onto him tightly so he wouldn’t risk falling off, at times Steve felt like he was the one hanging on to Eli. Just the warmth and the knowledge that he had someone behind him who trusted him wholeheartedly...while Steve knew that their jobs as Creepslayerz meant protecting Arcadia, at times it felt like he was fighting to protect that feeling, that warmth. Steve knew that it sounded silly-stupid even-but it didn’t change the way it made him feel. Just, knowing that Eli trusted him so readily, even after everything….okay best to focus on driving.

     He used to leave his Vespa in the bushes but he’d been reckless with their cover for a while, plus Eli had already _announced_ that they were friends, and Steve hadn’t said anything otherwise. But the fact that Eli felt like he had to say it, Steve found it both funny and sad. Even before Eli had said that they were friends, Steve had pretty much dropped the whole cover bullshit. Did Eli really need that much validation of their friendship? He parked right in the empty driveway, not giving a damn who saw, grabbed his gear and went up to the front door, knocking out their secret code.

    A few moments later the door was opened by Eli who was practically bouncing in his place, hyped up on either coffee or theories or both. Hopefully not both because that would always lead to Eli saying an entire paragraph of information in one breath.  

    “Creepslayerz meeting in session!” Eli announced, moving to the side so Steve could enter. 

    Eli’s mom still didn’t know about their little team. While the rest of the town now knew of the Trollhunters, Eli’s mom didn’t see the good that the team had done and had only gone about how dangerous it was and how reckless the parents were for letting the children do such things, immediately squashing Eli’s hopes of telling her. Lawrence wasn’t aware either because, well, Steve just didn’t want any unnecessary distractions. And god forbid that Coach would want to join their team.

   “Best not to let the whole town know Pepperjack.” Steve said, a teasing tone in his voice. Was he the only one who saw Eli as a puppy? A cute nerdy puppy on red bull but a puppy nonetheless.

   “Right.” He replied sheepishly, closing the door behind him. But god, could he help it if he was excited?! He still couldn’t get over the fact that they had seen a Cre-Changeling fighting up close and he didn’t think that he ever would because the pure awe that he had felt upon seeing one up close-but no, that’s not what the meeting was about. Today’s Creepslayer mission was about something that wasn’t Trolls related at all. While the existence of Trolls had been confirmed, Eli had other theories. Some theories far more…otherworldly.

    And he strongly believed that he had found proof for one of them. A solid seventy percent! Okay maybe sixty...it didn’t matter what the percent was. If something wasn’t completely denied then that meant that there was a possibility that it was true. And Eli was known for blindly following things.

    “Want any snacks for the meeting?” Eli asked. He wasn’t exactly allowed to take food up to his room but then again he wasn’t exactly allowed to fight Creepers so.

   “Yeah, but no popcorn, you always burn it.” Steve said, adjusting the pack on his shoulder and smirking.

    “That was one time!” Eli protested.

    A quick cabinet rummage uncovered a bag of chips and some cookies. They took those and went up to Eli’s room, the official Creepslayerz assemble location and birth place of the team. Even though it had been some time since they formed the team the thought would always make Eli smile. His room, the place where he had seen a Goblin up close. The first place where Steve had jumped up to protect him, where Steve had called him a cool dude. Where many meetings had transpired since then, some of said conversations would somehow turn from Creepers to other things, things that friends would talk about. It’s just-the start of everything happened in _his_ room. Eli made sure to lock the door behind them just in case his mother came home early, and uncovered his conspiracy billboard.

   Steve took his usual place on Eli’s bed, already munching on an oatmeal raisin cookie (he had originally thought that it was chocolate chip but life is full of disappointments). Steve already knew the drill, Eli would present a new creature he believed to have uncovered, what things they had to improve or new weapon ideas he had thought up. He could already tell that Eli had added new papers to his board.

   “Okay, you’re probably wondering why I called this meeting.” Eli began, speaking as if he was talking to a group instead of one person. “Now, we’ve known about Trolls for a while, and now everyone else does to. But Trolls aren’t the only Creepers out there, Goblins, Gruesomes, we know about those too. But I believe that I could have found information about another type of Creeper that we haven’t discussed before.”

   Steve knew that by ‘we’, he meant him, since Eli had talked about every cryptid imaginable at one point or another. Whether it was Bigfoot or the Missing Link, chances were that Eli had made at least one note of it.

    “Sometime last month a meteorite crashed in the woods, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal. Except this particular meteorite hadn’t been predicted by any astronomers, normally there’s news of a shooting star or a meteorite a good time before it happens but there was no cataloguing of this one. Even if they aren’t predicted they are written down, but this one wasn’t. Why?”

   “Not exactly sure but I have a feeling that you’re going to tell me. Something about this meteor was different?”

   “Exactly!” Eli beamed. “The meteorite would have had to appear out of nowhere to not be recorded and tapping into one of the traffic security cameras-”

    “Is that legal?” Steve cut in. Also he knew that the other was smart and Eli had claimed to be capable of hacking things but tapping into a security camera? Insane. Almost as insane as how insanely adorkable Eli got when he started rambling about things that he was passionate about.

    “Eh, define legal. Anyway, it shows this.” Eli, whose feet were clad in socks, slid across the hardwood floor and went over to his computer, tapping out keys with the speed of lightning. He pulled up a file and motioned Steve over so he could see. Steve went over, passed the bag of chips to Eli, who took a handful before pressing play on the ten second long video.

    Nothing was happening in the video, not even a car was there. Then a pink streak appeared out of nowhere in the background and disappeared out of the camera’s view. Okay, that was…odd.

    “It appeared out of nowhere.” Steve murmured, leaning closer to the screen. Didn’t all meteors do that though? Just show up?

   “That’s what I thought too but I slowed the footage down by-let’s just say by a lot and I got this.” Eli hit a few keys, tried not to notice Steve’s close proximity, and the file began to play frame by frame if not slower. Now the pink streak could clearly be seen traveling across the sky, fast even like this, then it seemed to stop and started moving slowly across the screen before disappearing off screen. Okay that…that did not seem normal.

   “It was going too fast be captured on camera, stopped, and continued its descent slower. Plus,” Eli explained. He clicked a few more keys, zooming in on the image. “Meteorites leave trails of dust; this had a streak because of the speed it was going but there’s a second streak that looks more like smoke.”

    Now Steve was beginning to understand what Eli was getting at and he didn’t like it one bit. Yeah, it meant more Creepslaying and he loved that but come on, couldn’t they catch a break? Maybe go out on the town just to see the sights and not to patrol. Go star gazing with stars that didn’t defy the laws of gravity like they did in this video. Or something like that. Not that Steve wanted to do dorky things like that of course.

    He glanced at Eli’s billboard one more time, the word that was right on the tip of his tongue was written there on a green paper. “Aliens.” He groaned. Of course. Nothing was complete without fucking aliens.

    “Yep, extra-terrestrials!”  Eli said giddily. Yeah, he had been pretty dramatic when he had told Toby his theories but that was just because he had wanted to seem hard-core and whatnot, put up a tough front for the Creepslaying team, it would hardly have seemed appropriate for him to start squealing about the concept of Aliens in Arcadia. But with Steve? With Steve he could squeal all he wanted.

    Steve’s eyes wandered down from the word Aliens down to the photo under it of…of actual…Was that real? How had Eli gotten that? Was that real?! He went over to the billboard, trying not to freak like he did when he had first stumbled into the world of Trolls and took a closer look at the photo. No. Way.

    Upon further inspection it appeared to be covering another photo. He pulled off the photograph of…of the Aliens and found a photo of the new students under it. Wait. No. Oh no. No. “You think our new classmates are _Aliens?!”_ He whispered shrilly.

    “It makes sense, and the timeline matches up.” Eli nodded. Another reason why he wasn’t presenting the concept of Aliens as dramatically as he had showed Toby, Steve could get pretty freaked out.

    “You are not dissecting them.” Steve said firmly, getting it together.

    Eli rolled his eyes, honestly, what did Steve take him for? “Of course I’m not going to dissect them! It’s like we said, observe first _then_ plan a course of action. I’ve been quietly observing them but I wanted to have information before I told anyone.”

    “Observing. You’ve been observing-okay.” He took a deep breath. Aliens. No big deal. It was only Aliens, possibly at their school. Yeah, no biggie. “Okay, when did you even ‘observe’ them? I mean they can’t be Aliens, we saw them perform in Battle of the Bands! Aliens can’t play music!”

    “I was able to watch them easily at school, but I don’t know where they live, no one does, no one has seen their parents either. And yes, they did perform at Battle of the Bands but they also began their act with those odd dolphin noises. It’s often theorized that Aliens communicate through frequencies-oh and thank you for lifting me up, I wouldn’t have been able to see anything if you hadn’t.” Eli thanked, once again cursing his short stature.

   “No problem.” Steve said offhandedly, he was feeling a bit lightheaded with all this new information. One thing was certain; they were sooo not laying eggs in his brain.

   “I wasn’t too heavy or anything right?” He had been more than surprised when Steve had offered to have Eli sit on his shoulders for the concert and had not brought it up since then to not jinx anything.

   “Pepperbuddy, you barely weigh anything.” He deadpanned.

   “Yeah but everyone has limits Steve, you do to.” Eli pointed out, going back to clicking at the video, trying to see if he could clear anything up. Toby had confirmed that the photo was near his house so that put the crash site in the woods but where? He had wanted to scope it out but eager as he was, he knew that going alone was a bad idea. So was going at all before they knew just what they were dealing with.

    But if he could at least triangulate the ship’s position. The question was how? Perhaps the ship imitated frequencies? No, wouldn’t that have affected the behaviour of nearby animals? Wouldn’t the Trolls have sensed the frequencies before they left? Alright, then what if-

    His train of thought was cut off by Steve lifting him out of the chair hefting him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, causing Eli to give a shrill shriek followed by a shout of “Steve?! What are you doing!?”

   “Proving that you barely weigh anything _and_ that lifting you up doesn’t push my limits at all.” Steve replied simply. And maybe he was also showing off just a tiny bit.

   “Okay, okay I get it! I don’t weigh anything now let me down!” Eli shouted, clutching at Steve’s shirt from his awkward position due to fear of falling.

   “And that you won’t doubt the king again.” Steve added, but not in the cruel way that he used to, now he said it in a playful manner.

    “Oh not that thing again!” Eli groaned even if a smile was playing on Eli’s lips and he rolled his eyes.

   “I’m sorry, what was that?” Steve asked, tightening his hold on Eli a bit before beginning to spin around, grinning widely at the squeal that Eli gave in response. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

    Eli, who was currently smiling and laughing like an idiot while hanging on for dear life, shook his head at Steve’s antics. This was not how a professional Creepslayerz meeting was supposed to go. “Fine! I won’t doubt you again, your m-majesty.” He relented, unable to speak without giggling.

    “Damn straight.” Steve said, obviously pleased, tossing Eli onto the bed as easily as he would a pillow. However he would never admit that his shoulder was a bit sore now. He went back over to the board to see what other information Eli had pinned up when he was hit in the back of the head with a pillow. Steve turned back around, shooting Eli a ‘Seriously?’ look, only for Eli to stick his tongue out at him.

    And well, who would Steve be if he denied the (play) fight that Pepperjack was obviously trying to pick? He picked up the pillow, inspected it this way and that before charging at Eli with it, smacking him over the head with it (while being mindful of his glasses).

    Eli laughed, snatched up the other pillow and returned the blow, hitting Steve right across the chest, all ‘professional-ness’ that the meeting might have had flew out the window.

    “You’re going to pay for that, buttsnack!” Steve proclaimed, moving to swing the pillow at him once more.

    He saw it coming and moved out of the way. “We’ll see, _your highness_.” He teased, whacking him in the face with the pillow. He didn’t miss like Steve had.

   An all-out pillow fight assumed, accompanied by laughs, giggles, and swears (by Steve). It was the perfect way to unwind after all of the stress that had been piling up on both of them. They both got a decent amount of hits in, laughing as they did so. Steve’s normally neat hair was soon messed up and Eli’s already somewhat messy hair only stood up in every direction more. Steve of course wasn’t using his full force so he wouldn’t accidentally break anything-or worse, Eli. But the pillows were soon dropped and escalated to a bout of play wrestling instead when Eli yanked Steve onto the mattress, pouncing on him after. They tangled in a mess of limbs, laughing and shoving and each trying to get the upper hand. Steve could have won easily by trapping Eli into a headlock but where was the fun in that? Though that didn’t stop Steve from pining him down with the upper half of his body; leading to Eli complaining about how doing so wasn’t fair. Steve relented after a minute or two and Eli immediately tackled him down to the bed afterwards, looking far too triumphant for someone who had just been squirming under him. He flipped Eli off who fell rather ungracefully and landed face first onto the bed, quickly sitting up to glare at Steve who was lying next to him. They exchanged glares for all of two point five seconds before exploding into a fit of giggles. Steve wrapped his arms around Eli’s waist, pulling him backwards who fired back with an “Unhand me you heathen!” as he struggled to sit up once more. Steve lost it and broke down laughing, burying his face in the mattress under him.

    Eli laughed and leaned down “What happened to ‘making me pay for that’, _king_?” Steve sat up quicker than lighting ‘Now listen here’ already forming on his lips except-oh.

    Eli had been closer to him than Steve had thought.

    Time seemed to stop, it didn’t click at first; the softness against Steve’s lips didn’t exactly register in his brain right away. Something electric went through him, would have made him shudder if Steve didn’t feel so goddamn warm. It started at his lips, bloomed in his chest and sent butterflies through him, made his stomach flip. Steve had closed his eyes in surprise but when he opened them…Eli was right there, his eyes still shut. Steve-he-Eli and he had-! Elijah’s eyes opened and they both stared each other for the longest fraction of a second before they both flew back, faces redder than Jim’s eclipse armour. They had-they-kis-

    Steve threw his flaming red face back into the mattress almost at the same time that Eli had screamed “ **Nope**!” And jumped off the bed, literally running out of the room. Steve heard the distant slam of the bathroom door. Steve groaned an “Oh flip” into the bed, feeling as if his face was on fire.

    He didn’t feel grossed out. Shouldn’t he feel grossed out? He had just kis-he had just k-worded the biggest nerd at school! He had just k-worded his partner, his teammate! And…and he had liked it. Oh god, like didn’t even begin to explain it. Steve would be a liar of he said that he hadn’t thought about it before but for it to actually happen-! To quote Eli, ‘Nope!’ Oh man he fucked up. He definitely screwed up. Should he leave? Stay?! What was he supposed to do?! While the Creepslayerz had codes for different scenarios, there certainly wasn’t a code for ‘Help, I accidentally kissed the person that I’ve been pining over but won’t accept that I’m pining over them but I’m pretty sure that this confirms that I’m pining over them!’

    How had talking about Aliens turned into this?!

     Oh fuck, they were going to have to talk about it weren’t they? Steve already sucked at talking in general! Especially in the emotions department! No, no, no, just because _that_ happened didn’t mean that he had to go profess his feelings for Pepperjack. Feelings that he had just officially confirmed for himself. Oh god, talk about bad timing. Maybe…maybe he could just continue to lie on the bed and pretend to be dead? No, no, he couldn’t just avoid this.

    Steve swallowed a whine and got up from the bed and slowly padded over to the bathroom, only to change his mind when Eli came out five seconds before he reached the door. The boys caught each other’s eyes for a second before looking away with bright red faces.

    “I’m getting a d-drink.” Steve said, cursing how his voice tripped over the simple word before quickly going downstairs and throwing open the fridge. Milk, juice, ice tea, grape soda. He vouched for the can of grape soda and cracked it open, practically inhaling the first sip, choked, took a deep breath, and took a calmer sip. He could hear Eli coming up behind him and tensed up.

    “I-I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean-it was an accident-I swear.” Elijah stammered, hugging himself tightly.

   “Yeah-I um-” he coughed. “I get it. I mean-it was my fault too.”

    Eli didn’t say anything and just nodded, face still scarlet. He paused. The way that Steve was standing, how red his face was, how he couldn’t look him in the eye-granted, Eli couldn’t look Steve in the eye either but…well Steve hadn’t beat him up yet. Maybe...“Actually, I take it back, I’m not sorry.”

    Steve choked on the soda for the second time that night. This time some actually came out of his nose. Charming. He quickly whipped it away before hitting his chest, trying to clear his airwaves. “Wh-at?” his voice cracked.

    “I-I said that I’m not sorry.” Eli repeated, continuing to hug himself but now forcing himself to look Steve in the eye and challenging the other to look away. Steve walked over to him in two steps, Eli kept himself from flinching. Hoy Hera what had he gotten himself into?

    “You know, you called me over here so you could tell me about some observations you made.” Steve began. Eli nodded. He wasn’t afraid of Steve hurting him-physically at least. “Well…I made an observation of my own.”

    “And what’s that?” Was he going into cardiac arrest? Yeah, Eli was pretty sure that he was going into cardiac arrest. No way could a normal heart beat as loudly as his was.

    “That you’re a good kisser.” Steve felt like his face was going to melt off if it got any hotter. “A-and that…I’m not sorry either.” He said, mumbling that last part but it didn’t matter because of how close Eli was. Before Steve knew what was happening Eli had grabbed him by the shirt collar, pulled him down and gave him another thing to not be sorry about.

    The beginning of the Creepslayerz, the first place that Eli had seen a creeper up close, the first time that Steve had jumped up to protect him, where Steve had called him a cool dude and where they had held many meetings since. Eli’s room was once again the place where a new beginning had started.

**Author's Note:**

> I like oatmeal raisin cookies, just letting y'all know.  
> This is based off something that happened to my friend when I had a sleepover at his house. So he and his boyfriend were being dorks (I was third wheeling as fuck RIP me) and he as a joke picked up his bf so I start snapping pics cause hello? Adorkable. They start play wrestling and my friend sat up to quickly and- well you can guess what happened. The thing was that they hadn't kissed till then so that was their FIRST official kiss (I GOT THAT SHIT ON CAMERA) so my friend just dissolves into a blushing mess on the floor while his bf literally sprints off to the bathroom and I was just C A C K L I N G.  
> Oh and y'all can't convince me that Eli can't hack shit because I'm pretty sure that most of the information on his billboard isn't exactly open to the public.


End file.
